RIVERSIDE COUNTY: Study finds room for improvement in crowded jails

JAIL STUDY

A two-year study by the nonprofit California Forward examined Riverside County's jail population in 2014. Among the findings:

Not violent: Most bookings for new crimes were non-violent offenses, mainly linked to drugs and alcohol.

Side door: Forty-one percent of bookings were for "side door" reasons – probation violations and court commitments – and not new crimes.

Not sentenced: Two-thirds of those who stayed in jail were there on a pretrial basis.

Mental health: Mentally ill inmates tended to be booked more often and stayed in jail longer.

A new study of Riverside County’s jail population finds that many inmates are not locked up for probation violations and reasons other than newly committed crimes and that the mentally ill tend to be booked more often and kept in custody longer.

The county Board of Supervisors discussed California Forward’s study during a workshop last week. California Forward, a nonprofit agency that seeks to improve the delivery of public services, spent two years conducting the study at no cost to the county.

The 3,906-bed, five-jail system causes major headaches for county officials. The jails are typically filled to capacity, and thousands of inmates are turned loose early every year to comply with a long-standing federal court order to reduce crowding.

In 2011, state lawmakers shifted responsibility for certain low-level, nonviolent offenders from the state to counties. As a result, some inmates are serving multiyear sentences in jails designed for short-term stays.

A recently settled lawsuit will add at least $40 million a year to the county’s expenses for inmate health care. Though the $330 million Indio jail expansion will add more than 1,200 beds, the county plans to open the renamed East County Detention Center in phases to save money.

The county is facing a budget crunch, with public safety costs consuming roughly two-thirds of discretionary income. So supervisors are eager to find ways to cut costs while keeping dangerous inmates locked up.

The study is the first step toward that goal. California Forward analyzed roughly 59,000 jail bookings from 2014 to find patterns.

THE SIDE DOOR

The study found that 59 percent of jail bookings were for new crimes, mainly drug- and alcohol-related offenses, and that eight in 10 new crimes were nonviolent. “Side-door” reasons, such as probation violations and court commitments, made up the other 41 percent.

Almost two-thirds of inmates who stayed in jail in 2014 were there on a pre-trial basis, the study found. “This is some fertile ground here,” said Scott MacDonald, a former chief probation officer in Santa Cruz County who spoke to supervisors about the study.

“What the law says is if you can release someone safely pending court, pending due process ... if that can happen, then it should happen.”

Nine in 10 inmates who left jail in 2014 returned to the community, the study found.

The study also focused on inmates housed in a special mental health unit. Those inmates had double the bookings of other inmates and stayed in jail more than twice as long, the study found.

Though the jail has mental health professionals, “There is a lack of assertive case management at re-entry and upon community return,” MacDonald said.

“If you can engage them in the community, they’ll stay on their medication and they’ll stabilize ... you’ll reduce that jail population and reduce the numbers in.”

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